Addons

An addon contains additional features that are not part of the subscribed plan, but are made available to customers on purchase of the addon.

Additional features like time tracking and syncing with third party apps (say) can be offered as addons.

Below are a list of things that will help you better understand addons. You can use the Addon Operations section to find out how to create, edit, delete or make an addon inactive. The Addon Fields section describes in detail about all the addon fields.

Addon Operations

Creating an addon

To create an addon, please follow the below steps.

Go to the Subscription Items tab and select the subscription item for which you want to create an addon.
Click the Add Addon button.
Fill out new addon details keeping in mind the above fields.
Associate addon with all/selected plans.

Associating addons with plans

You can associate addons with all or selected plans. Associating addons with plans can be done while creating and editing an addon.

Editing addon details

Go to the Subscription Items tab and select the subscription item to which the addon belongs.
Click Edit.
Save changes after making the required changes.

Making an addon inactive

An addon can be made inactive if you do not want to associate it with new subscriptions but want subscriptions for which the addon has already been applied to still make use of it.

To make an addon inactive, go to the Subscription Items tab and click Mark as Inactive on the required addon.

Deleting an addon

An addon can be deleted only if it is not associated with any subscriptions.

To delete an addon, go to the Subscription Items tab and click Delete under the addon to delete it.

Addon Fields

Here’s what the addon creation form will look like.

Types of addons

There are two types of addons - One-time and recurring.

One-time addons - Customers are charged only once for a one-time (non-recurring) addon. A separate invoice is raised for a one time addon

You can offer a one time addon which let users to back up all their data in the cloud. Typically, users would not want to back up date often. This requirement would call for a specific occasion. So backing up data in the cloud can be a one time addon.

Recurring addons - These addons are ideal when you need to bill the customer for the same feature each time.

Consider a project management software. There can be an addon which allows users to view their projects as Gantt charts. You can charge for this addon each time you charge for the plan making it a recurring addon.

Renewing recurring addons

The price of recurring addons are included only at the time of renewal of the plan.

Example 1:

Plan: Billed monthly
Cost of plan: $20

Addon: Billed monthly
Cost of addon: $5
Each subscription charge costs $20 + $5 = $25

Example 2:

Plan: Billed once a year
Plan cost: $50/year

Addon: Charged every month
Addon cost: $5/month
Total cost of subscription: $110 ($50 + 12 * $5) for the whole year

Example 3:

The below method of calculation is applicable only for Pricing Schemes - Unit and Volumes and not for Tier and Package. For Tier and Package schemes, the addon cost will not be divided rather the full amount will be applied every month.

Plan: Monthly
Cost of plan: $10

Addon: Billed yearly
Cost of addon for an year: $48
Each subscription charge costs $10 + ($48/12) = $14/month

Pricing schemes

Unit - Addons are priced per unit . So the per unit price of an addon has to be specified.

Example - If a customer wants to buy two addons with a unit pricing scheme that cost $5/addon, the total price for the addon would be $10 (2 * $5).

Volume - In this pricing scheme, the price for an addon is determined by the quantity of addon purchased. Pricing brackets are created to specify prices based on quantity.

Example - You can create different pricing brackets.

If the quantity of addons purchased is between 1-5, each addon costs $5.
If the quantity of addons purchased is between 6-10, each addon costs $3.

If a customer purchases 3 addons, the total cost would be $15 (3 * $5) AND If a customer purchases 8 addons, his total cost will be $24 (8 * $3).

Tier - Quantity determines the price of the addons as well. The only difference here is that the total price is the cumulative cost of per unit prices mentioned in the pricing brackets.

Example - Let’s consider the below pricing bracket.

If the quantity of addons purchased is between 1-5, each addon costs $6.
If the quantity of addons purchased is between 6-10, each addon costs $4.

If a customer purchases 7 addons, the total price of the customer will be (5 * $6) + ( 2 * $4) = $38.

Package - A specified quantity of addons can be offered at a fixed price.

Example - The cost of 5 addons (say) can be fixed at $20.

Account

This is another portion where the seamless integration with Zoho Books comes into play. You can store an addon’s revenue in an Income account in Zoho Books.

Whenever a customer subscribes to an addon, the corresponding addon’s revenue will be mapped into the account that you choose from the drop down. The drop down displays the list of Income accounts in Zoho Books.

To get an account listed in the drop down, you’ll have to create an Income account (Income/Other Income) in Zoho Books.

Sign in to your Zoho Books account.
Go to Accountant tab and click the Chart of Accounts sub-tab.
Click the + New Account button on the top right corner.
After naming the account, make sure to select an Income account type. Click Save.

Tax

You can add tax to your addon. You can also use tax group for more than one tax.

To get a tax listed in the drop down follow the below steps.

Go to Settings > Taxes & Compliance > Taxes.
Click the + New Tax button in the top right corner.
Enter the required tax details and click the Save button.

Advanced Addon Associations

ENTERPRISE EDITION

In Zoho Billing, you have control over how addons are applied. You can choose to have them automatically included or offer them as optional choices to customers. Additionally, you can define when these addons are used and whether they should be applied once or every time a selected subscription event occurs, depending on your business needs.

Scenario: Patricia signed up for the “Advanced” plan from Zylker API Services, which provides her with 100,000 API calls per month for a flat rate of $20. To enhance her subscription, Zylker offers an optional “Priority Support” addon for $5 and a mandatory “Security Monitoring” addon for $3. When Patricia subscribes to the plan, Zoho Billing automatically includes the “Security Monitoring” addon as it is marked Mandatory, ensuring that all customers on this plan receive the security service. At the same time, the “Priority Support” addon is shown as Recommended on the hosted payment page, allowing Patricia to choose whether or not to include it in her subscription. Later, when Patricia upgrades her plan or reactivates her subscription, Zoho Billing checks the Applicable Events and Event Frequency rules. If the mandatory addon is tied to Plan Changes and set to trigger Whenever an Event Occurs, it remains attached automatically even after the update.

Association Type

Association Type determines how addons are associated with a subscription plan, whether they are optional, recommended, or mandatory.

Type	Description
Optional	The addon can be added or removed when creating or editing a subscription.
Recommended	The addon is suggested to customers on the hosted payment page. It is shown as a recommended option before checkout.
Mandatory	The addon is automatically included and cannot be removed from the subscription.

Applicable Events

Applicable Events define the specific moments when addons can be applied to a subscription.

Event	Description
Subscription Activations	Addons are applied whenever a subscription’s status is changed to Live i.e., when the subscription is activated or reactivated.
Plan Changes	Addons are applied whenever a subscription is created or updated with a selected plan.
Trial Activations	Addons are applied at the start of a customer’s trial period. They are billed separately as soon as the trial begins.

Event Frequency

Event Frequency determines how often the association type is applied based on specific events.

Frequency	Description
Whenever Event Occurs	Addons are applied each time the selected event (like activation or plan change) occurs.
First Time Event Occurs	Addons are applied only on the first occurrence of the selected event (like first subscription activation).

Note: Applicable Events and Event Frequency can be selected only for one time addons.

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